The Republican journal., 1887-12-01
OUTSIDE WAKING.
a sketch of Life and Death Among the
Vicious Of New York.
Special Correspondence. !

SPECIAL Correspondence.
NEW YORK, Nov. 2a-In Baxter Bend, the
very heart of the Five Points, is fourishing
undcr:afcrs shop. There is little or 10 style
ai,"u: the place. The plate glass windows
AMI exquisite cabinet work which mark the
establishments of up town .'nortuary tiircc-
tors" are unknown here. But there are lots
of commercial grief, substantial, glaring,
and above all cheap. Pictures in which a
rotund female bends in Il manner unknown
to anatomy over weeping willow and a
cigar box like tomb decorate one wall On
another are assorted drawings for all faiths:
gaudy chromos of saints holding CORY hearts
in their hands, wood cut reproductions of
Dore, and even the queer banners used by
Chinese and other eastern races in decorating
death room. Large cases are packed with
collins, the dearer ones standing erect and
alone, the cheaper lying in nests of half
dozen. Collins for $40, for So, for S. and
even for 50. In this district, where epitlerl-
les breed increasingly, death loses its terrors
and its paraphernalia are everywhere re-
ga:dcd as ordinary commodities The little
sign, bargains in collins, tells the life his
eory of the neighborhood in manner
stronger than words.
Beneath the store is half cellar, half
basement, the like of which can he found
nowhere outside the Five Points. The
horrible marsh which once covered the few
acres where the tall tenements now stand
still shows its existence in the mold it forms
below the street levels, in the ooze that
trickles through walls, and the fetid smell
with which it fills all subterranean rooms.
This basement is the favorite place of the
denizens of the district for ''outside wax
ing L had often passed the place III the
evening and had heard the hum of voices
and the murky glare of lamps streaming up
the stairway, but had given it no particular
thought. The last time, however, it was long
after midnight. Two tired policemen who
were chatting on the street, and a trio of
roysterers who apparently preferred the side
walk and gutter to a civilized bed, alone dis
turbcd the solitude Of the neighborhood. As
l approached the place, two men and
three girls crossed over and went
down the stairs. One man and one
woman were dressed in ordinary work.
ing apparel. The other man was attired
In flashy style, while the two remaining
girls wore very dccollete and dirty silk
dresses with long trains. My curiosity was
excited, and SO ! climbed down the steep,
filthy steps and found myself in the low saw
dust covered room that constitutes nearly all
the basement floor. 1t was crowded with
people who sat around the four sides, and in
the center, obscured by the throng. Law a
cheap coffin of stained pine upon two ca1pen-
ters horses In it lay the body of some dead
criminal. Over the open top bent Young
woman whose face, once handsome, was dis
figured by the marks of sin and alcohol. In
corner of the room was keg of beer on q
trcstle, and a couple more untapped beside it
on the floor. In second corner Oh table.
were bottles of raw spirits labeled whisky
and gin, and at the head Of the coffin, as if in
satire of its animate and inanimate surround
ings, We're two candles and well worn cruel
fix. \ man who seemed to be bartender.
mourner and undertaken in one moved about
the place, alternately wiping dirty face
with a still dirtier handkerchief, and serving
beer and yet moro fiery liquids to those pre-
sent asked him what the occasion was.
He removed cigar from his lips and said:
What, this here affair? 1t is $40 wake
You see the fellow in the pine overcoat there
was one of the boys. He used to be a green
goods man, and then after that he worked
flilnflam. He was pinched by the police in
January on suspicion. They could not prove
anything, as we scared the complainant
away, but the judge sent him up to the island
anyway for sixty days His family went
back on him and the ward detective made il
lively for him. He got sick and he had
knocked around too much; SO he got worse
and worse, and died night before last. His
family would not bury him, and the church
would not touch him, because he was brought
up q Catholic and he died a crook and
wouldn't let priest come hear him when he
turned his toes up. So we raised pool and
gave him this sendoff. We boys clipped in,
and all the saloons where we booze hud to
come down with a couple of dollars apiece
or key OF beer. We pay the undertaken
for the box, the lights and the room rent,
bring our beer and whisky, and do the whole
business without any priest or missionary or
nonsense.
'Does it often happen! Just YOU bet it
does. 1t happens here and at a lot of other
places know in the neighborhood There
are crooks and criminals in hard luck.
and girls who have been thrown out because
they could not pay their room rent These
make the most of them. Then there are fell
lows who live in q single room or a lodging
house, or III the ten cent beds When they
die the landlord bounces the body to make
room for a new tenant They've got to 90 to
Potter's Field or else depend on the boys.
And then there are good many people who
live i'll two rooms and haven't the room to
have wake i'll. They send the corpse around
here and have good time.
''What docs it cost! Well, it depends upon
the style cpay the undertaken anywhere
from s. up for the coffin, and s. for the rent
of the cellar. The candles are usually thrown
in and the cruciix is lent. That crucifix
there is q lucky one and we try to always
have it at our wakes. There's black cruel
fix know that brings bad luck every time it
is used. Either the people get into a
fight, or the coffin is dumped, or
something goes wrong. Then the hcarse
and a carriage cost $40, and more carriages
s. or s. apiece and the grave s. upward.
This racket stands us in about $50, and it's a
first class affair-something we boys are
proud of. II you want more style YOU can
hire professional mourners; VIC call them
'keeners.' They are old Irish and Scotch
women, and sometimes English, who cry and
howl and sing and drink all night fer Il dol
lar and their drinks"
Daylight was beginning to make the smoky
lamplight ghastly yellow The festivities
were at their height. The mOurllel-; stood
and sprawled about the room III all con-
ditiOns of intOxication. A few were SO over
come that they lay like logs upon the floor.
hardly distinguislable in appearance from
the inmate of the coffin. It was with a great
Syocp nf tt,ok ,<,nol,<xl e.,